(1) A person is guilty of credit card or credit card number theft when:

Terms Used In Virginia Code 18.2-192

  • Cardholder: means the person or organization named on the face of a credit card to whom or for whose benefit the credit card is issued by an issuer. See Virginia Code 18.2-191
  • Credit card: means any instrument or device, whether known as a credit card, credit plate, payment device number, or by any other name, issued with or without fee by an issuer for the use of the cardholder in obtaining money, goods, services or anything else of value on credit. See Virginia Code 18.2-191
  • Issuer: means the business organization or financial institution or its duly authorized agent which issues a credit card. See Virginia Code 18.2-191
  • Person: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230

(a) He takes, obtains or withholds a credit card or credit card number from the person, possession, custody or control of another without the cardholder‘s consent or who, with knowledge that it has been so taken, obtained or withheld, receives the credit card or credit card number with intent to use it or sell it, or to transfer it to a person other than the issuer or the cardholder; or

(b) He receives a credit card or credit card number that he knows to have been lost, mislaid, or delivered under a mistake as to the identity or address of the cardholder, and who retains possession with intent to use, to sell or to transfer the credit card or credit card number to a person other than the issuer or the cardholder; or

(c) He, not being the issuer, sells a credit card or credit card number or buys a credit card or credit card number from a person other than the issuer; or

(d) He, not being the issuer, during any twelve-month period, receives credit cards or credit card numbers issued in the names of two or more persons which he has reason to know were taken or retained under circumstances which constitute a violation of § 18.2-194 and subdivision (1) (c) of this section.

(2) Credit card or credit card number theft is grand larceny and is punishable as provided in § 18.2-95.

Code 1950, § 18.1-125.3; 1968, c. 480; 1975, cc. 14, 15; 1976, c. 318; 1985, c. 266.